Herbs or woody vines, twining. Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate, stipulate. Inflorescence axillary, racemose; nodes swollen. Calyx campanulate, 4-lobed; lowest lobe lanceolate, longer than others, shorter than tube, upper 2 connate. Corolla usually purple with reddish or blue striations; standard usually large, circular, base clawed; wings almost equal to applanate part of keels, obovate or elliptic, upper auricle longer, lower short, stipe slender; keels sometimes obviously curved upward, beaked. Stamens diadelphous; vexillary stamen free. Ovary sessile, with silky hairs; stigma slender, curved upward, with perichaetial cirrus at base. Legume slender, dehiscent along sutures, woody, slightly compressed, tomentose, obliquely septate between seeds. Seeds pitch-black or black, oblong or orbicular, glabrous or shortly villous; hilum oblong; aril with 2 unequal valvules.
Home